The World War II diaries of my late father, Arthur Buttrey – R.E.M.E (942988)

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This site is still under construction. Please revisit over the coming weeks as I add my father’s diary entries.

This blog is based entirely on my late father’s WWII diaries which he kept throughout the war. Sadly the earlier diaries are missing and hence this journal starts in 1942, days before his marriage to my mother and his leaving UK shores to participate in the momentous events that were to await him.

On occasions I have added notes and comments which are clearly identified in italics.

My dad served in the UK’s Eighth Army from the start of the war in 1939 through to the war’s conclusion in 1945. Born in Morley, Yorkshire, he was a true and constant Yorkshireman through to the end. As a young man he was a keen and talented footballer, playing for local amateur teams, and enjoyed cycling, particularly around the Wolds towns and villages of the East and North Ridings, which at weekends would have been a breath of fresh air from the industrialised wool towns of the West Riding on his doorstep.

Like many of his generation, the war was little mentioned in my childhood, apart from the odd reminiscence. These often came as a reaction to some gung ho dialogue in a war film, usually of American origin, which we would have been watching.

So I believe these diaries are particularly important, not because of who my dad was, or what he did, but because future generations should be aware of what is arguably the most crucial and portentous period in our modern history.

Note: This blog is still in construction mode – some or all of the pages may not yet display.